


Sprung From The Brow

by crowsnest



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-18
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-03 20:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/385772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowsnest/pseuds/crowsnest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Megamind faces his greatest challenge yet: Single Parenthood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

There had been weeks of tests; more fluids drawn than either of them ever cared to think about, now or ever again. The baby had not come from a night of illicit passion; no, she sprang from Megamind's brow in an almost literal sense, born of his genius and willingness to work through disappointment, watching cells divide, zygotes fail, and saying good bye to every potential son and daughter that slipped through his fingers. _Athena_ , Roxanne had called the little bundles of cells that they swiftly implanted in her womb, _sprung wholly formed from Zeus' brow._ No sex involved. Just weeks of toil, months of frustration, years of want.

Megamind didn't honestly care; he knew only that he was going to be a father, and Roxanne was his beautiful wife and would give him a hard won child after years of struggle. She wouldn't accept a younger surrogate to provide the ground to plant the seed they'd struggled to create; at thirty-eight she was pushing the limit of safety, but this was their hard work, their prize. She would have her own child, by hook or by crook. 

All was rosy until the contractions began. Roxanne said she could feel it as she bore down, trying to keep from screaming with the pain; but the wrongness was not in the baby, but in her. Blood pressure bottomed out, and nearly lost consciousness as Megamind began to panic. One of the doctors told her to keep pushing, and Roxanne did. She was a trooper, blooded in the trenches of Metro City during its greatest strife. A baby wasn't going to best her. 

Megamind had not been so sure; not when she went so white. _Out of the room,_ they said. _We'll take care of them,_ they said. Megamind wasn't having any of it. Oh no, he could read the machines, watching her pulse dip and waver, the numbers starting to rapidly fall into a flatline crash. She was bleeding out. His wife was bleeding out and there was nothing he could do about it. 

Strong hands hauled him out. He had originally been thankful that Wayne came out of hiding, as grizzled and bearded as he had been several years ago, to share in their hard won joy. They were friends now. It was what friends did. But he howled and spat curses when the big man's thick arms closed around him as he screamed, holding him back from the room as Megamind listened to the machines's flatline whine; he barely heard his child begin to cry.

The rest was a blur. Wayne held him until the fight was out of him, arms tight until all the rage was out and the numbness poured into the space it left behind. Then Wayne set him down, smoothed a hand over his shoulders and guided him a seat. A few minutes later, they came out. _I'm sorry,_ was the only thing that registered. The explanation about the hemorrhage, the risks of her age. 

_I'm a friend of the family,_ Wayne said. _I'll make sure he gets home, contact the Ritchi family._ Megamind said nothing, until they opened the doors. _You should see them,_ they told him. Wayne guided him to their side. 

Roxanne looked so perfectly at peace, as if in repose, her features gone smooth with lack of muscle tension. They had already closed her eyes, and for that, Megamind was grateful. Would there had been accusation? Anger, with him not there until the end? Or just horrible emptiness, a void where there had been a person? He had seen people die before, seen that light flicker out. He did not want to see those blue eyes dead and empty. .

A nurse held the baby, watching him as if he might be a danger to his own child in his grief. Someone asked _Are you ready?_

No, he wasn't. He wasn't ready to go back to being alone. He wasn't ready for all the challenges of fatherhood without Roxanne's sensibility to counter his whimsy. He wasn't ready to be a single dad. 

“Yes,” he finally said, and extended his hands-- they passed her over; still flushed from the pressures of birth, she was more purple than blue, her head oversized and her eyes large, though they were not open. She shifted a little, and then fall into exhausted, post-birth slumber. 

Megamind stood, arms around her; brought her close to his face; she smelled of clean linen and fresh blood and that undefinable scent that was simply baby. Their brows touched, and he swallowed a sob.

“It's just you and me now, kid. Just you and me.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No spiked gloves in the baby's bath, sir.

He would look back on it, later, and say it was like waking from a long, bad dream. The reality of the situation was unchanged: Roxanne was dead, her body laid to rest in a hastily arranged plot – Minion had purchased two others in the same area--one for himself and one for Megamind, since those eventualities seemed suddenly much more looming. The immortality that children presented had only driven home the eventuality that they would both be gone. Then she, too, would be on her own, hopefully with a family of her own to support her.

Support, however, was lacking in the now. The truth of the matter was that Megamind had been sleepwalking through the start of his daughter's life, and that was unforgivable. The guilt that weighed on him did not decrease, but upon waking up to the reality of Minion with blanket upon blanket draped on his arm, Athena nestled among them, Megamind realized he'd dropped the proverbial ball. He needed to get on with his life. More importantly, he needed to get on in _her_ life. She needed him.

They were the latest remnants of a dying planet. Like himself, Athena had come from a lost world—the microcosm that was Roxanne Ritchi's body. It was time for him be there for her, the way Minion had been for him. It was time to introduce her to the new world of her family, her home, and everything she would have.

The pall broke over the household, and summer returned. Athena was four months old and it was a sweltering July in Metro City. Megamind returned to active duty-- both as a hero and as a father; crime had not slept while he grieved, and there was as much to do outside the lair as within it. 

Too much to do, he realized. The balancing act was difficult. Minion took a great deal of the burden off Megamind's narrow shoulders, but that only served to make the guilt heavier. Who was raising his girl? Him, or his Minion? Who was protecting Metro City, then? Him, or-- well, there was no one else, was there? Minion could there for Athena, but Metro City only had Megamind. 

Wayne 'Metro Man' Scott was a stalwart supporter, but his career had taken off years ago, only to crash and burn under scandal as groupies turned up with superpowered babies. He had three children by three separate mothers and been outted as a fraud. His finances were in shambles. Megamind couldn't count on Wayne to remember to use a condom; how could he count on him to back up him up in a city he'd abandoned years previous? 

The simple answer was: He couldn't. 

So he went it alone. It twisted him up, wrung him out, and wore at his spirit and his enthusiasm. He took his frustrations out on the Doom Syndicate. Megamind pummeled Judge Sludge to paste and took the strut out of Jive Turkey and Rockatoo. Psycho Delic's machinations toward setting up a new drug cartel went up in smoke. He worked his way through their numbers, one by one, collecting them from their prison breaks and marching them back till only one was left.

Hot Flash put up almost no resistance when Megamind came for her; the fight was a token effort, even he knew that. He was barely even sweating when he knew in top form she could reduce brainbots to so much slag. She had gone easy on him, making it a very simple, neat victory. He just didn't know _why._

“That wasn't even worthy of a fire extinguisher! Age finally catching up with you?” he asked as he locked down the power dampening cuffs on her wrists. “Maybe it's time to throw in a wet towel, hmm?”

“Have you looked in a mirror, lately, honey?” Hot Flash replied, leaning back against his chest, getting uncomfortably deep into his personal bubble. “You've got one foot in your wife's grave and a little girl at home. I'm doing you a _favor_ and giving you a _warning_ \-- don't you waste this time, Megamind. They're only this young _once._ You only have this chance _once._ Don't screw it up. You'll never forgive yourself if you do—when they're grown and they hate you for all the time you _didn't_ give them.”

There was no more banter, after that, not even the most subtle of flirtations on her part. No. Merely a delivery back to jail and a quiet word word with the warden and police about leniency before her limped home to find his right-hand-fish bathing his squirming daughter. 

“Am I bad father?” The words were out of his mouth before he could think to take them back. No 'hello', no 'how was she while I was gone'. Hot Flash had rattled him. A common villain tactic – but he didn't think it was just any common villain encounter. 

Minion just looked at his master, before he looked down at Athena. He seemed to weigh his answer very carefully, as he ran a gentle sponge over the baby's body. Utterly unaware of the gravity of the situation, Athena fussed and cooed in the little plastic tub on the counter. The tub was bright yellow; shaped like a duck. Ducks had been a theme. For whatever reason, Roxanne had liked them. Lots of the baby things that they'd found had ducks on them, at her insistence. No spikes. No leather. _Ducks._

“You've been under an immense amount of pressure, sir,” Minion said as he put aside the sponge. He threw a towel over his furry shoulder and picked up Athena, letting her drip for a moment, before placing her to a against the towel. “With Mrs. Ritchi's death, and-- well, Athena. Then there were those women and Metro Man's paternity suits. Needless to say this has been a very-- hard time, sir. We're all recovering, but you most of all. No, sir. I don't think you've been a bad father. A grieving husband, yes. But not a bad father.”

Megamind crept closer. He reached for one of the matching yellow hooded baby towels to wrap her up. 

“Ah-- boss?”

“What is it, Minion?” 

“No spiked gloves in the baby's bath, sir.”

Megamind stopped, looking at his own hands for a moment. He couldn't stop the laughter from slipping out, no matter how weak and weary it sounded, incredulous at his own lack of forethought. He peeled his elbow-high gloves off and then undid his mantle, passing them off to waiting brainbots. “What would I do without you, Minion?”

“Oh, you'd learn to manage, sir,” Minion assured him. 

Once completely safe, Minion passed Athena to Megamind's waiting arms. He toweled her dry and put her into her diaper and jammies – also decorated with ducks (the damn things were _everywhere_.)

“Take the night off, Minion. I'm going to to play house for a bit, if you don't mind.”

“I won't be far if you need anything, sir,” Minion said, before he clapped his master on the shoulder. “But I'm sure you'll be fine.”

“Would you do me a favor, Minion?” Megamind asked, as he headed toward the bedroom suite. “Not to impose on your night off, but – sometime, in the near future – could you do a little digging into Hot Flash's background for me?”

“Of course,” Minion said, though bewilderment passed over his face. “Sure thing, boss. Was she especially difficult today?” 

“No, Minion. That's the troubling part. She wasn't. But that's the last of them back behind bars-- should have a little quiet time from here on out, I hope. But-- go do something-- fun, Minion. Catch up on your reading or sewing or-- anything you like. I've got this here,” he said. “Research can wait.”

“Of course, sir.”

Megamind shut the door behind them. The baby's crib was in one corner, with a glittering mobile filled with planets over head. Off to the side sat her changing table and things. But he didn't put her down. Not yet. Whistling once, Megamind summoned a brainbot. He greeted the thing with a scritch to it's metal jaw, before he started to give it commands.

“Access archives: Roxanne Ritchi reports, oh-- summer of 2014. That was a good summer,” Megamind said as he climbed into his bed with his daughter, resting her against his chest. 

The bot began projecting stored news segments onto the wall. Roxanne's smile was three feet wide, her blue eyes clear as a spring morning. She told the stories of their past adventures, voice ringing true

Athena wriggled against her father, and he soothed her, rubbing a hand against her back as they laid back against the pillow .

“I know. I miss her too,” he admitted. There was no denying the empty side of the bed where she'd slept, or the lack of her presence in his life. It was a wound not yet healed. “I don't know if you're going to be like me, Athena-- if you'll always remember like I do, but I'll make sure that you know who your mother is. I know I couldn't forget her if I tried. Fantastic lady, your mother. I hope you get her sass and her wit. She could banter like nobody else could, Tena.”

Athena looked at him at he spoke; she had her grandfather's brown eyes, and her mother's brown hair. Roxanne's square jaw on her daughter's face was obvious even under the baby fat. However, from her father she gained blue skin, an enlarged head, and a far more rapid development, at four months she could sit up, follow movement, and crawl. It was far more advanced than any human infant of a relative age-- but still light years behind what Megamind himself had been capable of at that age. Whether she would have his near perfect memory, the ability to recall things in her infancy, remained to be seen. 

Megamind smiled at her and nestled down, pointing at the screen. Athena's head turned, and she peered up at it. 

“Here's the report about shooting Behemoth into sun!” he told her. “He came back from space really angry a few months later, but-- man, your mom, she knew how to describe throwing a giant angry lava monster into the sun...”


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minion kidnaps the baby. Sort of.

“She needs more sunshine!”

“Nonsense! I subsisted with minimal amounts of sunshine as a child!”

The fight was a familiar one, and Megamind knew going into it he was going to lose. Minion and he had done the research, but in the end feeling won over fact. Megamind was afraid. He was afraid for his baby girl, afraid of losing her like he had lost his wife. So he penned her up and tried not to think about what she might be missing.

Minion had no such luxuries. He was engineered on some level to care about the well being of his charge, and now he had put that into full force with the youngest resident of the lair. Tena, as she was called more often than not, needed sunshine, playdates, and fresh air. Minion said so. Minion was not going to hear anymore arguments about what Megamind had ‘made do with’ and certainly was not going to use the older alien’s wreck of a childhood as an example to rear by.

So the fight was lost: Athena Ritchi was going to go outside, be seen in public, and have play dates. Perhaps even go to the park; a suggestion that nearly gave Megamind the vapors. The risks! The vulnerability! Didn’t Minion know that playgrounds were _festering pits of death?_ That _predators_ worked at every corner, looking for the cutest prey they could find? Megamind insisted that he was in no way biased in thinking that his little girl would be a magnet for such criminals. She was, after all, the most adorable child on the planet, blue or otherwise, and thus would become the target of ill-meaning evil-doers.

Minion wasn’t hearing any of it. He didn’t quote statistics when Megamind was wound up – that if anyone was likely hurt his little girl, it’d be someone close with regular and easy access, because then Megamind would have gotten wound up in the other direction. Instead, he simply stood his ground, let his boss work the shrieking out of his system, and then began to make arrangements once the fits had mostly subsided and looked into the purchase of strollers.

However, finding a playdate for a blue, big-headed baby was fraught with difficulty. Even with the Ritchi family's assistance—Glenn and Helen Ritchi had a lukewarm relationship with Megamind at the best of times, but they tried for their single granddaughter—it was hard to find anyone who could deal with the strange child and not be quickly outpaced by the rapidly developing proto-toddler. So Tena lacked for playdates and Megamind lacked for social outlets that didn't involve robots or the occasional texts to Wayne.

“Wayne has three children,” Minion suggested.

“We have been over why Wayne cannot help with the baby – juggling aside,” Megamind said. “Wayne cannot even manage a condom, and Penny always looks at me funny.”

Minion flared in irritation, but Megamind ignored it. They continued to argue back and forth on the topic for the next few days, as Minion went through crime reports in the areas of every park in the city, trying to find the safest place that they could go to better assuage Megamind’s fears that someone would strip him of the last piece of Roxanne Ritchi in his life.

Surprisingly, it was Hot Flash who provided a solution. Still doing research on her on the side for Megamind’s curiosity, Minion finally dug up just what she’d been discussing: she had children of her own!

“Hot Flash, alias Francine Fieri,” Minion showed him later. “She has a daughter of her own, a granddaughter, and a great-grandson! And that’s what lead me to this. It seems her daughter is a social worker, running a support group for families with people inside the _Prison for the Criminally Gifted._ ” 

Megamind’s eyes bulged as he looked over the list. He sputtered and stammered as he ticked off names of people he knew.

“That’s a veritable laundry list of supervillain spouses and children!” Megamind said, shaking the papers in Minion’s general direction. “Rhonda Dell is Simon Dell’s ex-wife! We know him better as Psycho Delic. Kimberly Beams is Destruction Worker's daughter. Hot Flash’s granddaughter is on this list…” 

“And they have a support group! For families with supers in them.”

“Super _villains,_ Minion. We’re _good guys,_ now. I don’t think we qualify,” Megamind tossed the papers back on the drafting table. “They’ll probably hate us for changing sides, Minion. No, this isn’t for us.”

Minion, however, was not so sure. Besides, due to his regular nightly patrols, Megamind slept during the day, and a little reconnoitering during the day wouldn’t hurt, right? The support group had a regular, family-friendly outing at a park twice a week. It seemed ideal for Tena to go to! All Minion would need was a disguise watch for himself and a hologram over the baby’s stroller. One had already been built, if not yet implemented. They’d be fine!

Nothing could possibly go wrong with taking Tena out to the park without Megamind’s knowledge! After all, if there was ever a truism of the lair, it was “it was better to ask forgiveness than permission”! And he'd ring up Wayne and Penny and they'd all go out and have a grand time, all together... without Megamind.

Once Megamind had fallen into exhausted slumber, Minion was on daylight duty. Since Megamind rarely slept more than four hours at a stretch--he simply didn’t need the same amount of sleep as humans did--Minion usually sat and let Tena nap for an hour while her father was down for the count, or played games with her, or any number of things. 

Today, he kidnapped her. 

Were it seven years ago, Megamind would have had a good laugh and possibly lectured him about taking initiative a little too far. However, things had changed since their merry days of carefree villainy. If Megamind caught him sneaking out with the baby-- well, the fight, he was certain, would be what the kids might call ‘epic’. 

It didn’t stop him. He packed her up, shushed her as they got into the car, and drove away. The guilt didn’t set in until he got out of the invisible car, and got the baby situated in her stroller. He had his illusion in place, and the stroller projected one for the baby as well. Together, they were a well-meaning older man, a grandfatherly figure and his granddaughter. They even managed to resemble each other--Minion's honeyed eyes were a lighter brown than Tena's deeper ones, but the face shape and the hair were right, he thought. He'd put a lot of work into the image, to get it just right.

They waited for Wayne and Penny and the three Scott children. Penny had a maroon Subaru Outback grocery-getter and baby-hauler, but as she was three months pregnant with Wayne’s fourth child and her second with him, so Minion was counting the days until they upgraded to full-fledged minivan or gas-guzzling SUV. He had money on the minivan; Megamind had said that Wayne's ego would never settle for anything less than an Escalade with all the bells and whistles and only put up with the Outback for so long. But it was paid off and for whatever reason, that was a big deal to Penny. Minion didn't really get it. But eventually, he spied the Outback pulling up and the family of five unloading. 

Wayne and Penny were the oddest of odd couples; Wayne remained an imposing figure at six-foot-six, still a solid slab of walking muscle, though these days he wore fashionable jeans and some name-brand shirt that, on his body, combined to become somehow effortlessly stylish. He just had that way about him. Even three kids all under five years old in tow, he managed to look suave and maintained his swagger.

Penny, on the other hand, was a dishwater blonde with nothing standout about her. She had an average face with hazel eyes, a somewhat oily complexion kept under control with a variety of products, and acne scars at her temples that she could never completely hide. Her thin lips made her look like somewhat unfriendly, though Minion knew that behind those lips hid a dazzling smile, that she often turned upon her boyfriend.

Megamind said that Penny knew she'd hit the jackpot when she had refused to simply give up her child and had instead worked her way into a relationship with Wayne. Seeing Penny's little hand slip into Wayne's much bigger one, however, Minion thought that was a very uncharitable thing to say.But pretty much everything about Wayne and Penny that Megamind saw or said was colored by the still unresolved issues between the two supers, and probably always would be. 

Wayne and Penny currently had three children - Mason, four years old, Olivia, the two and a half year-old blonde cherub, and little Noah, who was not yet a year old. He was currently strapped to Penny's chest in a baby-harness. Noah was the only child who was biologically Penny's. However, as far as the state was concerned, the other two children were as well, since they were under Wayne’s sole guardianship. Both of their mothers had surrendered them once their superpowers had begun to manifest. Only Penny had stuck around and said, _No, that's my kid too._

"Hello! Wayne, Penny, it's good to see you again!" Minion called to them with a wave.

Mason startled when he heard Minion's voice out of the illusionary man, and looked to his father for reassurance. Wayne gave a nod, and Mason then looked at Minion, trying to fathom the change, before he shrugged and gave up. Even at the young age, he was something of a cynic. Liv, however, squealed and pronounced Minion's disguise to be magical with a clap of her hands. She tore herself from her mother's grasp to run over and cling to his leg.

"Yes, I've missed you too," he said, patting her hair.

"Cookie?" Liv knew very well he had them. Minion never left the house for an outing without something sweet on his person for the Scott children.

"You'll ruin your lunch," Penny admonished. "Hello, Minion."

"Hey, fishy buddy," Wayne said, as he came over. The two shook hands politely. Minion preferred Penny's company to Wayne's, but in outings like this, they were a matched set. Megamind's distrust of the man was well-founded, and though he seemed to have turned over a new leaf and was trying to be a father to his children, Penny was simply easier to relate to than the former (and still) super man.

Mason regarded Minion with wariness, but mumbled a hello, before they did their equipment check prior to setting off. Everything seemed in place, and so into the park they headed.

Liv reached out and patted Tena's hand as she walked between her mother and the baby's stroller. Liv was almost two years older than her, but the two were good playmates. Tena didn't talk yet, but she was growing much too quickly for that to be a major worry, and she was much better developed than any human baby her age.

"So what've you found out about this group?" Penny asked, as they walked down the park trail. There was a playground, bright and plastic and colorful, visible in the distance. That was their destination, where the support group of super families apparently met regularly.

"That most of them are family members of ex-villains," Minion began slowly.

"That might've been a good thing to tell us before we were headed over," Wayne said, giving the 'old man' a look. "Considering I probably put all of them away a couple hundred times."

"I'm aware of the possibility," Minion said, waving away his concerns one-handed. "I mean, Megamind's taken up the same duty. They might be hostile. Or maybe they'll be just what we're looking for! I mean, it can't hurt to try? And, at worst, they’d just be mean to us. They’d never actually hurt us, right?"

Wayne and Penny exchanged a glance, and Minion began to worry. But they didn't stop walking. Wayne just reached down and plucked Mason up, putting him on his shoulders effortlessly.

"Can I fly, dad?" the boy asked.

"Not here," Wayne told him. "Too many civilians."

"Feet on the ground," Penny reminded Liv, who had begun to float at the very suggestion of flight. Minion had to admire her. He at least knew generally what to expect with Tena's development. Penny was the mother of not one, but three -- soon to be four -- super children with no knowledge of what it could be like. Plus, the kids each had a grab-bag of super powers: Mason and Liv could fly, and so far Noah had only displayed super-endurance and enhanced strength. Thankfully, nobody had started firing lasers from their eyes yet.

"So beyond the potential that we might be walking into a mob of angry family members," Wayne said, laboring to keep from drawling sarcastically and only being semi-successful, "is there anything else we should know?"

"Megamind's not--aware of this little outing?" Minion tried to laugh it off, but Penny's scandalized shriek startled Liv back into hovering and Mason grabbed two fistfuls of Wayne's perfect, if shaggy, hair to steady himself as his father turned.

"You mean you're on the lam with the baby," Wayne said, finally stopping. "You took Tena out without his knowledge?"

"He sleeps a lot during the day," Minion began. "Twilight world species, prefers the dark, you know..."

"I know all that, fishy buddy. I just wondered what made you to think this was a good idea without Megamind's knowledge." Wayne had this ability to sound terribly self-righteous without really trying. Minion supposed it was simply his nature to sound somewhat judgmental.

"I thought it would be a good idea for us to all get some time out, and... well... Maybe if he saw how successful we were, and that it went alright, then he'd relax about letting Tena out of the lair," Minion began to explain, feeling lamer by the second.

Penny sighed, rubbing her face. "Minion," she began, already putting on the Mom Voice. 

Minion pushed the stroller forward with new force. Liv floated behind him, holding on to Tena’s hand as she drifted behind them like a tethered kite.

"Minion," Penny repeated. "I know you want the best for Tena, but I don't think this is the way to make Megamind feel more secure about her."

"This isn't even about Tena," Wayne muttered. "It's about Roxanne."

Invoking the dead woman's name brought a pall over the group. It was as if cloud cover had suddenly blocked out the sunshine, and the Michigan summer had gotten that much cooler. Penny slowed, and then so did Wayne. Minion eventually came to a halt, with their eyes boring into his back.

Tena fussed in her seat, wriggling; she was the only one immune to the sudden emotional thunderhead that had formed. She saw brightly colored plastic, and a sand pit, and it excited her big baby brain. Minion listened to her babble, and then straightened.

"I was told to look after him," he said simply, turning to stare down the super-couple and their children. His eyes were bright, even in this imaginary man's face. "Well, I've done that, for nearly forty years. I've watched him suffer and I've watched him hurt. And I watched him triumph, too... and there wasn't much of that compared to the rest, let me tell you." He gripped the stroller with new intensity, before he forcibly eased his hands away.

"Well, now, someone has to look after her until he can get it through his big, thick head that he needs to stop being a grieving husband and be a good dad. But it's hard, okay? He didn't have what either of you had," he continued, ignoring Wayne's tell-tale flinch. What Wayne had or hadn't had -- and what he had taken from Megamind over the years -- was still a huge sore spot between the two stranded aliens, and every reminder prodded at well-buried guilt.

"He only had me, and I'm not his father -- we all know that. I'm not her father, either, but I'm going to do for her what I couldn't do for him. If you two want to ditch and escape the inevitable mega-tantrum, go ahead. No hard feelings." 

His anger vented, Minion's simulated shoulders slumped. "There are people out there who might understand her, and might understand him, and I'm going to do my best to find them -- even if he'd tell me not to. For both their sakes."

No one spoke for a moment. Tena babbled in her seat, still fussing. It wouldn't be long until she started to squall, wanting to get out of the stroller and walk about on her own.

"Alright," Wayne finally said. "Let's go. But first sign of trouble or a fight, and we're gone."

Penny seemed more hesitant, but she was the only one in the group without some sort of specialness. She stood out in her normalness, but with a squeeze of Wayne's hand, she calmed and gave a slow nod.

"Let's go find these super families," she said.

The fight won, Minion's false face managed a smile and he pushed onward with new resolve.

Yes, this would work. It had to.

Tena had to have something normal in her life, and if Megamind wouldn't pull himself out of his grief... it was up to Minion.

He just hoped, as the playground loomed in the distance, that he was the right fish for the job.


End file.
